Apple's recent moves to beef up its own chip development segment shows a very important corporate strategic move. There are many ways to look at this move, one of which is Apple's ability to build on its current success while other technology companies are still trimming the fat.
Obviously, the more control you have over your products and the fundamental elements that make up your products, the more you have to leverage in your market. Now, you may not be Steve Jobs, but there are still many companies that are weathering the economic downturn successfully and how those companies leverage their unique positions to advance during the downturn is important.
Another angle to this is expansive thinking from a product perspective. If you're selling clothing based on your designs, you may not know anything about manufacturing, but that doesn't mean that if you're doing well, you shouldn't consider controlling your own manufacturing, since manufacturing is a critical element of the clothing business. Apple made its way designing functionally compelling and visually appealing technology products, not by making the chips at the heart if Apple products.
By controlling product categories or services related to your core business, your core business gains a competitive advantage. One last example here. eBay and PayPal. Credit card processing is not auctioneering. However, long ago, eBay saw an opportunity to streamline its core product, auctions, by acquiring a payment processing company that made it's service easy for eBay shoppers and sellers to use. EBay tried to do the same with Skype, given that communication between buyers and sellers on eBay was another angle. Here, eBay couldn't successfully integrate Skype into it's core business, so that one failed. Stray too far from your core business and experience the pitfalls.
Diversify your product model...
